22 January 2009

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Promising to return America to the "moral high ground" in the war on terrorism, President Obama issued three executive orders Thursday to demonstrate a clean break from the Bush administration, including one requiring that the Guantanamo Bay detention facility be closed within a year.

...A second executive order formally bans torture by requiring that the Army field manual be used as the guide for terrorism interrogations. That essentially ends the Bush administration's CIA program of enhanced interrogation methods.

...A third executive order establishes an interagency task force to lead a systematic review of detention policies and procedures and a review of all individual cases.

This week keeps getting better and better.

It was all well and good to be excited about the prospect of things being different, but it's something else to actually see steps being taken to get us back to that whole "nation of laws," thing.

And, it may be petty, but it puts a grin on my face to think about the wailing and gnashing of teeth that's going on in the right wing circles that think the scripts from 24 represent sound policy plans.